Review: Between You and Me by Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus

  Title: Between You and Me
  Author: Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
  Publisher: Simon and Schuster
  Publication Date: 12th June 2012
  Source: NetGalley
  My rating: 4 stars

 

This book has left me utterly flabbergasted, I don’t know if I will be able to form a coherent review, it was such a raw, achy, and a heartfelt read. The entire time I felt like I was in an intense tug of war between the two main characters; Logan and Kelsey, being yanked one way one minute and then the other way the next.

Between You and Me centres around Kelsey, a famous singer and cousin to Logan. Logan and Kelsey haven’t spoken since they were younger and Kelsey’s family abruptly left. You’re never really clued in about the back story behind their fallout until much later on, so you kind of find yourself picking up little clues along the way. Being a massive star, Kelsey’s schedule is choker block and with her assistant Delia leaving and a chance invite brings Logan to stay over, Logan finds herself taking Delia’s job, she had barely anything left back home anyway  and she missed Kelsey  not being in her life anymore, so she’s hoping this job will make up on the missed time.

It wasn’t the dream job being Kelsey’s assistant, she never had a moments rest, and she was constantly on the go. At times I truly felt for Logan, yes she was family but she didn’t have to feel obliged to Kelsey, or feel like she had to do everything. There was constantly so much pressure travelling from city to city in a few days, organising everything to miniscule detail, it must have been a mind numbing experience for both of them. I’m surprised the cracks didn’t start to show sooner.

Then there was Finn, who seemed to be the perfect guy for Logan, with the crappy love life she’d had she totally deserved her time with Finn, but their relationship was tested to the extreme with Logan being at the constant beck and call of Kelsey.

There’s just so much to take with Between You and Me and the choppy style of writing through the book makes it a lot harder to adjust to, one minute you’re dealing with Kelsey having a tantrum and the next you’re thrown into a scene a few days later. It did take a while for me to get my head around it, but the characters especially Logan pulled you into the story so immensely that you overlook the choppiness and just want to keep reading.

I still can’t explain what I feel about this book, on the one hand I want to recommend it to everyone as it’s such a dark intense and achy book and it deals with everyday issues in such a brilliant way which makes the book seem even more realistic. But then there were some aspects which left me frustrated, like some of the decisions the characters made. One thing for sure this book definitely packs a punch, it just toys with your feelings in an instant, you can be feeling one thing one minute and then bam you’re shocked into a silence the next.

Also normally endings which are left open ended generally irritate me, but I liked the way this book was brought to a close, everything’s not hunky dory, but your left to make your own interpretations of what happens to the characters.

I have to praise Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus’ writing in this book, I adored their book The Nanny Diaries, it was an enjoyable read which I devoured, but this is just a huge step-up from that. I’ve come to realise that some of the best books end up being the ones that keep you awake at night rethinking things, its constantly in your head during the day, with you recapturing parts which you actually can’t believe happened and just simply blew you away. Books which end up being so memorable, that your thoughts are completely chaotic afterwards. I’m sorry but this may be one of the most jumbled reviews I’ve ever written, this book was so gutsy and gut wrenching that I would never be able to explain just how awesome it was.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the opportunity to read this book.